The OODA Loop

[Ben Sims]

Colonel John Boyd is one of my heroes. 

I tell my students all the time that "you can either be somebody in life or you can do something in life.  It's hard to do both."  Col Boyd is the ultimate example of how to do something.  Part of that doing something involved stepping on toes and bucking the system, hence his retirement rank of Colonel.  Though his accomplishments were worthy, he never made flag officer. 

One of his crowning achievements is the OODA Loop.  I've written about it before.  It stands for, Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.  Here's some background so I don't have to type it.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OODA_loop  The OODA Loop has been a guiding principle for the American way of war since the late 1980's.  It is the foundation of our current covert war of "recon and strike" in the tribal areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

In regards to architecture, I always try to approach a golf hole as if I am at war with it.  How can I beat the architect in this given situation?  Before I get some "single-digit" responses, yes, I know much of it has to do with actual execution of a shot.  An AMRAAM missile is much more fool proof than my tee shots, I assure you!

No, what I am talking about is the dynamic nature of the challenge presented by a golf hole.  I constantly observe and reorient myself to the ground and wind, and what has changed from the last shot to the position I am in now.  Do architects do the same thing?  Are golf architects trying to get into the golfers OODA Loop and "blow up" his thought process?  Or are they trying to leave openings for the "fast OODA" golfer to succeed while trying to thwart the non-thinker? 

One of the hardest things for a designer has to be the static nature of his war with the golfer.  He never gets to redesign his hole based on the conditions of the day or the golfers it may face.  Are the best architects those that understand this static nature and design golf holes with both thinkers AND non-thinker in mind?  Is that the ultimate use of the OODA Loop in golf?     

[RJ_Daley]

Ben, too bad the veteran of the Boer War, Dr. MacKenzie - the camouflage artist isn't around to discuss this with you. 

[Jim Colton]

Ben,

  Let me speak on behalf of the rest of us, we're glad you are a better OODA'er as a pilot than you are as a fourball partner.

  I like this framework. It seems like the good architects are trying to come up with subtle ways to mess with us each step of the way. There are lots of different ways to make bogey. But successfully navigating each step should be possible and should yield an appropriate reward.

[Ben Sims]

Ben,

  Let me speak on behalf of the rest of us, we're glad you are a better OODA'er as a pilot than you are as a fourball partner.

  I like this framework. It seems like the good architects are trying to come up with subtle ways to mess with us each step of the way. There are lots of different ways to make bogey. But successfully navigating each step should be possible and should yield an appropriate reward.

I recall my feeble fourball abilities being good enough to help win a Ballynizzle Cup this past summer.  See what I did there?  My OODA's quicker!

I agree with your second statement however.   It's too simple to say that archies are trying make it easy for hackers and hard for gamers.  It's more than that.

[Joe_Tucholski]

Thought it was funny that while watching USC/Oregon discussion on college football live and reading a discussion group on golf I see discussion on the OODA Loop.

Since I commented I figure I should provide my opinion.  You mention that there are thinkers and non-thinkers.  I'll interpret that to mean there are those that are more adept at observing and better at orienting (in my mind what makes us human is all of us observe and orient before we make a decision whether we realize it or not). 

The thing that makes war and football different than golf in my mind is your opponent is constantly changing and in order to be successful you need to be adept at observing and orienting.  In golf I don't really feel you need to be all that adept at observing and orienting in order to be successful.  The course and the obstacles are relatively stationary, as you stated you just need to be able to act with precision.

Are there courses that are better because they have features the astute observer is able to notice and utilize to successfully complete their shot...yes.  So I guess they are trying to reward those that are observant with additional options but I don't think they are trying to thwart those that are less observant.

[Tom_Doak]

Ben:

We were discussing complexity yesterday.  I think it's the same thing.  The Old Course at St. Andrews is maybe the only course I've played where if you know the course really well, and hit the tee shot 10 or 15 yards from where you were trying, you might very well have to change your entire strategy for the subsequent shots.  That's what we were trying to achieve at Old Macdonald, anyway.